Glasser Live Review 22/02/11
Glasser are a four piece band from Los Angeles, whose confident and immaculately produced debut album, ‘Ringer,’ has been spreading whispers amongst attentive indie fans since its release towards the back end of last year.
London’s XOYO is the venue, an intimate basement club on the edge of trendy Shoreditch. Over-priced, suspiciously watered-down lager out of plastic cups is customary here, and XOYO Bar Staff seem rather apologetic to the raised eyebrows given to the cost of beer.
Glasser’s sound is carried by the impressive vocal aptitude of Cameron Mesirow, which gives great warmth to the percussive electronics and absorbing synths that support her. At its best, the music is mesmeric, and is well illustrated on a stripped down, near a-cappella version of album highlight ‘T,’ which reduces the audience to near silence, as Mesirow’s salient, gliding melody absorbs the room. Allegedly, the band took their name from “a midnight vision of a figure hanging over the water,” and this imagery is never more befitting than here.
Elsewhere, ‘Plain Temps’ strangely invokes Enya, with a vocal chorus of nonsensical syllables over a dreamlike synth. ‘Tremel,’ and its tribal drumming, encourages the first signs of head-nodding from the rather stoic crowd, and ‘Home’ has a playful keyboard refrain, which gives ample opportunity for Mesirow to boast her finest twitchy dance. It’s easy to draw comparisons with Bjork in both her choice of outlandish outfit, and eccentric behaviour on stage. Comedy occurs when her peculiar 1920’s milkmaid style dress, held together with safety pins, begins to unravel. “I feel like Janet Jackson at the Superbowl,” she claims, to submissive sniggers.
After playing the album in its entirety, Mesirow returns to deliver another stunning unaccompanied piece, which demonstrates that Glasser’s great advantage over their peers is the fact they have a vastly talented vocalist. In addition, it perfectly fits the sunny and ethereal quality of the music, which altogether makes them a very promising prospect
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